I planned a brief walkabout this morning, then arrival at bus station ah hour before departure to be sure to get s seat. A woman from the hotel had offered to accompany me to the station since I didn’t know exactly where it was. Well, getting there an hour early wasn’t good enough. All the tickets for the 12:00 bus had already been sold. The next bus was at 2:30-3:00… Crap! We moved away from the counter to consider options. The lady from the hotel asked if I wanted to consider a private car. I said I would consider it, depending on the price. (My mention of cost was gratuitous. My little remaining time in China was precious!)

She made some calls and waited for response on price. The she heard back: 350rmb (about 65 bucks or so) She said to me: “I think the price is too high.” As context, the bus ticket would be 35.
Well I wanted to get back to Linxia as soon as possible and see some more things! It would be my last opportunity.
I told her that although yeah the price was high, I wanted to do it. She didn’t judge me and spoke to someone on the phone.
OK she said, lets go meet the driver. As we left the station she told me she had “argued the price down 60”.
Well, anything helps!

After we gotten a bit further I decided i’d better make sure I understood and got the math right. “So the price will be 290, right?”

“No, 60”.
OMG! She had gotten the price dropped from 350 to just 60. Indredible!!
What an angel! From that moment on, I thought of her as the “Hotel angel”.

We met up with the driver, and the car already seemed full .. multiple riders I supposed.
A lady in a hijab got out of the passenger front and insisted I sit there. Well, it transpired that she was the driver’s wife, and the car was filled with their kids. I conversed a bit (using translator device) with the wife and with the older daughter who was behind the driver.

They were all super nice and friendly, and curious about who I was and why I had been in Xunhua. I gave my stock answer which interested them a lot.

Turned out the family was getting dropped off at their home, and only driver and I were going to Linxia. As the family got out of the car they were all warm smiles and waves.

As the driver guided the car through the city and onto the highway the diver and I got into a lengthy discussion about Islam, the troubles in the world, and my experiences teaching English to immigrants of diverse origins.

He was a super nice guy and we got along really well.

As we got onto the superhighway and we had to back off a bit our communication via translated text. But he wrote to me again, saying that I was a good person, clearly a great educator, and that he had admiration for me. (I also admired him from our short conversation)

OMG sometimes I want to cry. Really I am just a schmuck, but people are really nice.

By the time we were in Linxia we were good pals and had exchanged Wechat contact info. And yes, it really was only 60 RMB fir the ride.
People really do make the difference!

I had already committed to meeting up with a friendly front desk clerk from my Linxia hotel. He he wanted me to try local specialty mutton. In American English “mutton” seems such an ugly word, and conjures up thoughts of terrible British food.
He told me he was taking me because he wanted to practice his English. But I think it was actually that he was a very nice guy.
After I had gotten back to the hotel (he was off today) I texted him to see what time he wanted to eat.
What I was thinking was that there were a couple sights I wanted to see. And if he was going to be delayed I’d go see them first.
But, he said hey, he’d like to go see those places too.

We went to the first on my list, which was the oldest mosque in the city. We arrived and I was asking him about the history of the mosque, when a young guy nearby inserted himself into the conversation.
The new guy (Ali) spike English pretty well (better than my new friend Junhua from the hotel) and we all decided to visit the places together.
Ali is Muslim and spoke to an old guy with a big beard to help get info.

After learning a bit about this mosque we went in to a Daoist temple and then a Sufi mosque. Ali was great and explained some things about the difference between Sufi Muslims and some other groups.

Then the three of us went to eat dinner before moving on to the “8 squares and 13 lanes” city landmark.
The restaurant that Junhua had chosen was phenomenal. The food was delicious, and to start things off we had Ba Bao Tea (eight treasures tea). Ali mixed the ingredients up for us from bowls of the individual components, talking all the while.

All three of us had a great time, and then moved on to the landmark neighborhood of “8 squares and 13 lanes”.

Linxia was truly a wonderful and interesting city! I’d really like to go back there sometime soon!